Medvedev, Merkel Will Discuss Political Support for Nord Stream Project

A Kremlin source has told Interfax that matters related to political support and management of the project to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which is meant to guarantee reliable long-term energy supplies to Europe, will be discussed at the upcoming top- level Russian-German discussions.

"Multifaceted economic ties remain the foundation of the entire set of Russian-German cooperation," he said.

"The dynamics of trade turnover with Germany - our key foreign trade partner - remains high. The indicators for the first 8 months of this year give hope to expect that the volume of mutual trade for 2008 will reach a new record high level exceeding $60 billion," the source said.

The high-level strategic working will hold a regular meeting ahead of the summit and "intends to concentrate on promoting pilot projects in energy, transportation, aerospace and automotive industries, agricultural machine-building, utilities, health protection, training for the public and corporate sectors, and skill improvement of engineering personnel," the source said.